Ilha de Moçambique
| Ilha de Moçambique | ||
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| Waters | Indian Ocean | |
| Geographical location | 15 ° 2 ′ 18 ″ S , 40 ° 44 ′ 1 ″ E | |
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| length | 3 km | |
| surface | 1.5 km² | |
| Residents | 14,000 (2005) 9333 inhabitants / km² |
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The Ilha de Moçambique ( German Mozambique Island ) is an island and at the same time a city in Mozambique and namesake of the country. It is located in the province of Nampula . The Município Ilha de Moçambique has 54,315 inhabitants (as of 2005); 14,000 of them live on the island.
geography
The narrow island has an area of 1.5 km² and is a coral formation. A sea strait only a few kilometers wide separates it from the mainland. A 3.8 kilometer long, narrow bridge leads over this from the port of Lumbo , which is passable for cars, but not for buses or trucks.
history
Muslim merchants from Zanzibar used to trade here. The island was part of an Asian-African trade network.
Vasco da Gama was the first European to meet the sheikh of the island, Moussa Ben Mbiki, from whom the name Mozambique is derived. The encounter should have been peaceful. In 1506 the Portuguese Tristão da Cunha and Afonso de Albuquerque occupied the city.
At the northern tip of the island is the Fort São Sebastião , built in 1508 under Afonso de Albuquerque with enormous expenditure of money; the stones came numbered from Europe.
The city was of great importance in the past, especially when the slave trade was flourishing. Due to its favorable geographical location, the island developed into the most important port in the country. A few months after the occupation, it replaced the city of Sofala as the new administrative seat of the Portuguese in East Africa, even if the governors-general continued to carry the title of "Captain of Sofala".
At the end of the 19th century, the city was the seat of the governor-general, a bishop and a German consul, had a stately governor's palace, a cathedral, customs house, arsenal and great factories for French, Swiss and German trading houses. The streets were then described as narrow and angled. The population consisted of 150 Europeans, mostly Portuguese, several hundred members of the Bania caste , who held trade with India in their hands, some Chinese and Arabs and 4,000 to 5,000 Makua . Ilha de Moçambique was the capital of the Portuguese colony of Mozambique until 1898 , but was then replaced by Lourenço Marques (today's Maputo).
Since the loss of the capital city function, the city deteriorated increasingly. The consequences of the civil war after the departure of the Portuguese became visible in the cityscape.
The island has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991 because of its colonial architecture .
gallery
Hospital central from colonial times
Church on the Ilha de Moçambique
Capela de Nossa Senhora do Baluarte of the Fort São Sebastião
Beach of the Ilha de Moçambique
Mosque on Ilha de Moçambique
sons and daughters of the town
- Campos Oliveira (1847–1911), poet, is considered the first Portuguese-speaking writer in Mozambique
- Orlando Mendes (1916–1990), Mozambican writer
- Lília Momplé (* 1935), Mozambican writer
- Esperança Bias (* 1958), FRELIMO politician, Minister 2005–2015
- Ossufo Momade (* 1961), Mozambican general and politician (RENAMO)
Web links
- Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).
- Historical city map (1957) Retrieved August 30, 2009
Individual evidence
- ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center: Island of Mozambique. Accessed August 21, 2017 .